Irritability, depression, insomnia… Noise pollution penetrates our environments and disrupts our health. To fight against noise, now considered a polluting factor in its own right, the association La Semaine du Son is organizing a series of events from January 18 to February 7, 2016 across France. On this occasion, the collective proposes a list of measures, gathered in a charter presented this week to Unesco. “As the ear does not have an eyelid, human beings are constantly listening to a world that increasingly uses sound systems, audiovisual systems and close listening, at increasingly high sound levels, often and continuously“warns the association in its charter. A priority axis is therefore that of health. According to La Semaine du son, we must first of all know the risks associated with noise and their consequences on our body in order to better monitor and repair hearing each other, for example by carrying out regular hearing checks, and this from birth. Indeed, “good hearing and understanding are necessary conditions for the acquisition of fundamental learning and for integration into the family and social environment“underlines the charter.
Reduce noise in cities
The problem of noise pollution arises mainly in cities, where noise is omnipresent even in residential areas. Difficult, therefore, to find a haven of peace in which to rest your ears. This is why the charter proposes actions at different levels: better insulating living quarters, workplaces and schools, but also reworking urban planning projects, in particular by developing quiet areas, isolated and far from noisy axes. To act in the most sensitive areas, La Semaine du Son promotes the development of a “city sound mapping“. In Île-de-France, the national institute for research in computer science and automation (Inria), with the support of the City of Paris has also developed a smartphone application, Soundcity, which makes it possible to record the sound levels of the places we are next to in order to participate in a vast sound inventory.
But let’s not wait for now lower the volume of our music players, audio and television systems over which we have control.
On the occasion of the Semaine du son, until February 7, 2016, find hearing test terminals made available free of charge in Paris in the following places: Radio France, Alliance Française, the Pierre et Marie Curie University Library and the ECE Paris Engineering School. You can also download the Test @ udio Siemens app (available for free on the App Store) to easily test your hearing.
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